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With the purpose of the entire Sujira franchise, Kagami Yoshimizu began things as the creator of the manga adaptation, with Takeshi Obata handling character designs. Other art illustrations (i.e. promotional art for the anime adaptation) were instead handled by Ito Ogure and Hiroaki Hashimoto. The manga was serialized June 5, 2007 in Japan and has released all 46 volumes since March of 2011. Viz Media licensed the manga for an English translation beginning on June 13, 2007 (eight days after the original launch in Japan), which now has only 43 volumes since April of 2011 (volumes 44 through 46 have all been released November-December of 2011). In general, the manga is rated B in Japan, and A for All Ages in North America. With that during the beginning of 2008, an anime adaptation was produced by XEBEC and was also presented by Dentsu and TV Tokyo (Takuya Igarashi acted as the series director). It aired weekly in Japan on the TV Tokyo channel, and was licensed in America by Viz Media and Warner Bros, but the two license companies dropped it by the end of Summer 2010, and Bandai Entertainment started to rescue the franchise, practically updating cultural references (save for a few exceptions), rewrote the script to moreso follow the manga (and to an extent, the original Japanese version of the anime), and recasted and reworked a few roles in the English version; in particular, Kazumi's current VA has been Cristina "Vee" Valenzuela since Bandai saved the anime, while Mukuro's English VA, Spike Spencer, decided to mix a low and a high-pitched voice together in order to capture the feel of Rica Matsumoto's performance. Beginning in 2012, Bandai Entertainment announced that they would no longer release any Blu-Ray or DVD releases (thus dropping the rights to the anime series). Since then, fellow company Media Blasters are now keeping the rights "in good hands" and are actually picking up where Bandai previously left off (no real english dub changes will be made, either). But, the main target is the genre settings... Portrayal in the manga The original manga has been known for its fast-paced and energetic humor value, but at the same time, heavily dark and grotesque action; the latter has been significantly toned down in the anime adaptation. Such examples are, but not limited to, Ryu Mokuro's tendency to smoke cigarettes (even though he's underage), Zakura Aori's breasts being slightly bigger and "bulkier", the yaoi element between Ryo Tetsumaki and Hydraken being increased (since the latter's more femimine attitude would suggest, otherwise), the demons having more enraged and shock-filled facial expressions, and the fight sequences being a bit more brief than fully present. Like with most Shonen manga, fanservice is often present at times. Ironically even if it's for censorship issues, Total SujiAguupin (an anime that is said to be a timeskip series similar to Naruto Shippuden, but after the Fall of Kunoha arc concludes, it is revealed to be just the characters in a future universe with different things happening to them) follows the manga counterpart more closely, but still omits Ryu's smoking habits, Zakura's larger breasts, and some of the blood depicted. The manga adaptation (both VIZ and the original translations) has received mixed reviews from fans and critics, thus far. Mania.com praised the storyline, action sequences, and dramatic moments, but criticized the artwork as well as the ridiculous comedic value. Manga Life admitted that they enjoyed the humor for the "sake of it", several of the fight sequences and also some of the artwork in later chapters, but criticized the underplayed character development and the repetitive storytelling of the first couple of chapters. Anime News Network's Rebecca Silverman claims that the series CAN suffer through cheesiness at times, although most likely due to the Sujira franchise being a spinoff of the Teletoon original series, Total Drama. Portrayal in the anime Different from the manga, the anime adaptation was made to be more lighthearted and over-the-top in its humor area. Fanservice was apparently toned down (Zakura Aori's breasts are shorter in comparison to the manga and she's more of a love/hate character instead of just being loved; usually leans towards the "hate" borderline), character development is now present, the art style resembles both Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (not a series done by either Takeshi Obata or XEBEC) and To-Love-Ru with a bit of Total Drama Island, fight sequences have more time to run (but not akin to Dragon Ball Z), cultural referencing updates, Ryu's smoking was omitted, and a significant loss of filler... which is different from most Shonen manga-turned-anime. When VIZ Media originally licensed the anime for North America, they included an english dub and asked Cartoon Network if it could be aired. They agreed and the anime was rated "TV-PG" for suggestive dialogue and fantasy violence. Localization wasn't much of a problem for Total Drama Sujira either, other than the opening and ending themes being cut five to ten seconds earlier, the title being shortened to just 'Sujira' (because Teletoon sued at the time with the words "Total Drama" being present), and the Williams Street logo being shown after the end credits (replacing the "Next Episode Previews" sometimes). VIZ also used a slightly different voice cast, using diversity; there would be VAs from Studiopolis, Bang Zoom! Entertainment, FUNimation Entertainment, ADV Films, Nelvana, and also celebrity talent; examples included Micah Solusod (from FUNi) being the English voice for Ryo Tetsumaki, Stephanie Sheh (from Studiopolis/Bang Zoom!/FUNi) as Nimadoru Habarushi who would later voice the Aori siblings primarily in the Bandai dub, and Brad Swaile (Ocean Dub) as Hosuke Nara. VIZ and Warner Bros. would later quit licensing the series after the final episode of Total SujiAguupin's Fall of Kunoha arc. Bandai Entertainment immediately announced that they had saved the series right after and recasted and reworked a few roles, as well as changed the script to be more faithful to the manga. Reception to the anime adaptation has been overwhelmingly positive, in contrast to the manga's mixed responses. Fans were pleasantly surprised with the change, as was critics. Theron Martin of Anime News Network noted that the anime adaptation is "definitely an eyesight in terms to animation and art style, and also a knockout when it comes to the comedy presence and the action sequences". He also praised the diversity of the music, also noting that "veteran composers like Daisuke Ishiwatari and Shiro Sagisu may be powerful on their own, but coming together with others such as Taku Iwasaki, Crush-40, and Hoshina Anniversary is a giant full house at its core". Animationinsider.net praised the animation (for being close to anything Gainax and/or Sunrise-related), humor, music, and fight sequences, but criticized the english dubbing on VIZ Media's part at the time for being inconsistent and some of the running gags being overused from time to time. IGN admitted to disliking the anime at first after seeing the trailer XEBEC and Takuya Igarashi released back on October 2007, but started to worship it after seeing a few episodes or so; they praised the art style, composition of music, fighting scenes, overall english dubbing (Bandai Entertainment), and the character development, but still lamented the original Japanese cast, calling them "a bit underacting"... a shocker for a majority of anime! They also were a bit critical of the humor, saying that the cultural referencing is "dated" and the other amount of laughs and giggles can somewhat interrupt the flow of the more darker moments. Aside from all of this, the anime has been a garnering success in both Japan and North America. The genres *Action *Bangsian fantasy *Parody *Horror *Surreal comedy Category:Total Drama Sujira Category:Other works